What a stupid mistake.Careful of theme updates.

Last Update: December 01, 2018

This is just a friendly reminder to be careful of updating your Wordpress Theme. I don't use plugins for a few choice items in my theme because I don't want the additional overhead. This includes header and footer related code.

I made an update to my Theme in mid November and spaced on replacing my Google Analytics code. A few days later I checked in and thought my site was offline. I freaked. I had zero traffic for 5 days.

What happened?!?!?!

When you replace your theme you overwrite your header and footer files with new copies. Woops.

Google analytics was a quick fix. Just drop some new code in.

But the real mistake was...

I use Amazon OneLink (if you don't know what it is then look into it here). In simple terms it ensures you capture sales outside of the United States without multiple sites/links.

Talk about a screw up. Right over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekends I basically missed capturing every single sale from outside the US Amazon Site because OneLink wasn't configured in my footer.

Ugh.

Let it be a warning...

Use plugins to help you manage your headers and footers...Or have a checklist around to ensure you don't forget such tiny, but every so important, updates.

Have you considered setting up a child theme? That way, only the "parent theme" will update, but all of your own changes (like header / footer / Analytics) won't be affected.

If you type "child theme" into the search bar at the top, there's plenty of info about it. Kaju have done a neat job of setting it out nicely in this training: (Kaju have a few trainings about child themes - check them out!) Easy-Peasy Child Theme Setup Wishing you all of the very best and thanks for bringing this to our attention again!
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)